Excellent as always, I read all Bob Skinner books years ago, and was delighted that Quintin Jardine was still writing about him.

I received this book from Netgalley as a review copy. Read it from my kindle while on holiday. as much as i am a Bob Skinner fan I found this book a bit sluggish. i'm not sure if it was the political element or the fact that the majority of the team were not around. I am hoping this is just a one off and the author isn't struggling for inspiration. Don't let this review put you off reading a Bob Skinner book because they are excellent, just this one wasn't.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner is long out of the police force but trouble has a habit of following him around. So it is that he finds himself in the Palace of Westminster as a shocking act befalls the nation.
Hours before the Prime Minister is due to make a controversial statement, she is discovered in her office with a letter opener driven through her skull.
Is the act political? Personal? Or even one of terror?
Skinner is swiftly enlisted by the Security Service to lead the investigation. Reunited with Met Police Commander Neil McIlhenney, he has forty-eight hours to crack the case - before the press unleash their wrath.
There are many in the tangled web of government with cause to act. But the outcome will be one that not even Skinner himself could predict...

I am a strong believer in the idea that authors need to retire characters after a certain number of books. This is the 28th novel featuring Bob Skinner - and I don't think it is much different in style than the first book in the series.

Is this a good book? For sure. It has all the trappings you would expect from a British crime novel. What it lacks is that something special that elevates it from a good book to a great one.

Will I read more of this series? Probably not. I haven't read all 28 of these but I think I have read enough to know that some things never change...


Paul
ARH

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review State Secrets by Quintin Jardine.

I have read all of the "Skinner' novels and have enjoyed every one of them. Mr. Jardine has created not only a great main character, but an ongoing cast of characters who grow and mature as the books go one (well most of them anyway, but enough of Andy Martin). It has been a pleasure reading how each of them has progressed.

'State Secrets' feels like it might be the culmination of Bob Skinner's career (I certainly hope not, but if so it's been a great ride). In this book, he's been cajoled to London to talk about a possible peerage (Baron Skinner anyone?) by his ex-wife, leaving his heavily-pregnant former ex-wife alone in Gullane to await the birth of the newest Skinner. However, while he's there he's roped into solving the attempted murder/murder of the British PM by Amanda Dennis of the Service. Oh, and he's reunited with Neil McIlhenny as his police liaison.

I have been accustomed to Quintin's latest ploy of switching narrators between his two main characters (sometimes more than two, but that's in other books), and no longer find it disconcerting.

Throughout the book we're introduced to various (fictional) government members and get a peek into how the British Government functions (or malfunctions in some cases).

This is a thoroughly engrossing mystery with surprises along the way. I recommend it to both new and seasoned readers of Mr. Jardine's series.

Back with good old Bob.

OHHH I do love a Bob Skinner book. Here we are at book 28 and I’m by no means sick of this series, if anything with each and every book I left wanting another one, then another one. I was late to the Skinner party so was very fortunate to read the first few back to back, I wish I could just be starting over with them all again now.

I love how each book especially now we are so far into a series seems to bring back in a character that maybe you haven’t heard to much from in previous books. This time it’s the lovely gentle giant of Neil McIlhenney. Neil is now a Met Police Commander, It’s a good while since he and Bob have worked side by side.
Its great how it just doesn’t seem to matter that Bob Skinner is no longer in the police force, the former Chief Constable still seems to be the go to guy when a big job needs big responsibilities. And this is certainly a big job, a top secret job that only someone with Bob’s experience could handle.
​
A shocking murder at the Palace of Westminster has Bob and Neil working to a very tight time frame to try and figure out who could possible want to kill the Prime Minister just hours before she was to make a controversial statement.
Was this act meant to silence the PM for good, or was it personal.
Bob and Neil have this huge case on their hands yet as things need to be kept top secret they are working with limited means. And with only 48 hours of media blackout, can they get anywhere near uncovering the truths before the media find out just what exactly has happened.


OH my Lord! What a read and a half that was. I loved every bit of this book. I was seriously engrossed from the very beginning and did not want to stop reading until I was at the end. Unfortunately real life gets in the way and occasionally I actually had to put the book down and do real life, stuff.


I think any Bob Skinner fan will seriously enjoy this book, but any fans of crime fiction need to read this series. I also think it would be better reading in order, I think with a series this good that has gone on for 28 books then you owe it to yourself to know the back history of some of the characters.

Bob Skinner has come to see if the offer to be a part of the present government is something he is interested in doing. His timing seems to be just right to help with seeing who stabbed the Prime Minister just before she is to announce a new secret warfare concept that will put Britain a head of the rest of the world. There is a coverup going on but can Bob and his helper Commander Mclhenney find out who and why it is happening. They have only been given 2 days to find out. Many secrets are uncovered in the interviews on cabinet members but are they pertinent to what happened. Very good read and those who already read about Skinner will continue to enjoy reading what he is up to in this edition.

.. . .... .... ... ..

This is book 28 in the Bob Skinner series and I never tire of them. Lots of background information in this one but it is a complete stand alone. Set in the Palace of Westminster, with plenty detail and political characters. Took me some time to get to grips with all the politicians and the setting was just a bit claustrophobic, rather than the streets of Edinburgh. The ending was a bit unexpected but if you like political thrillers, with great detail, you will enjoy this book. Thanks to Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads and Amazon.

3.5 stars rounded up.
This is book 28 in the Bob Skinner series and I have read pretty much all of them. Obviously I would usually start a series book review advising that you go back and read the previous ones before this, and I would also suggest this here as there is an awful lot of background and character development to be had from doing this. That said, I do recognise that there are 27 previous books here and that might not be practicable. Luckily, the main story contained within this volume is complete and, although there is a lot of history between the main characters herein, most of this is summarised sufficiently for newcomers to the series to play catch-up to a certain extent.
OK so to recap, Skinner is still out of the police. Still working part time in the media, he answers an invitation to go south to London for a meeting at the Palace of Westminster having been headhunted for a different role. As his meeting is ending, he receives a phone call that pretty much turns everything upside down as there has been an incident; the Prime Minister (PM) has been found with a letter opener embedded in her skull. Skinner is swiftly seconded to the Security Services and requests that old friend and colleague Neil McIlhenney join him as he tries to cut through the red tape to investigate what has happened. All the time keeping the news from the press and the public. Is the incident connected to a controversial speech the PM was about to make on Defence or is there something much more sinister going on? With politicians involved, who knows!
I guess it's always hard when a series has gone on as long as this one has insofar as the character can't stay the same. They age, they mature, marry, divorce, have kids, rinse and repeat, but one of the things they don't do, especially in the police, is stay in the same job so long. The author has, quite rightly, progressed his main character up through the levels until he can go no more with the force, especially with the changes to structure over the border. So, I guess he has to throw something different into the mix now Skinner is away from the force. Although his reason for coming down south is valid, I couldn't help feeling this situation was a little contrived to squeeze a bit more yardage out of a series that maybe has run it's best. That said, once I got my head around all the many characters and their positions on the political spectrum, it was a pretty decent read. Personally, I am not that familiar with or interested in the nitty gritty of politics and all the shenanigans that go with, so it did take me a fair while to get to grips with what was going on.
Anyway, I plodded through and the ins and outs of what was happening with the investigation did interest and intrigue me but I am also afraid that, apart from the absolute ending, the who and why of what happened in the PM's office did leave me a bit flat.
That said, as I have been with the series pretty much from the beginning, and with things with Skinner ultimately left as they were, I am not quite ready to jump ship and abandon it just yet. Luckily, Skinner has remained true to everything I know and love about him as a character so at least that was consistent. I just hope that the author puts him in a more appealing situation to me next time.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I have been reading Quintin Jardine’s Bob Skinner novels for so long now that I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know the crusty Edinburgh detective. I have seen him rise though the ranks to the position of Chief Constable of first Edinburgh and then Strathclyde, applauded him as he turned down the post of Head of the new Police Scotland force and then followed him into a retirement which still manages to bring him into contact with many of his old colleagues as well as exercising his remarkable skills of detection. This, his twenty-eighth outing, sees him in London paying what really amounts to a courtesy call on the great and good of the Labour Peers who want him to consider joining their ranks to whip their presence in the Lords into shape. It isn’t a role that Skinner wants but with almost uncharacteristic consideration he decides to at least meet with them and discuss the proposition. However, his morning is interrupted by a call from his old friend, Amanda Dennis, Head of the Security Service, asking him to join her immediately but without letting anyone realise where he is going and whom he is meeting. The exposition is over and the plot has begun.

Plot is what Jardine is best at. It may not always be entirely believable but it carries you along at such a pace that you rarely stop to question the likelihood of what is happening, even when that includes that assassination of Emily Repton, Tory Prime Minister of the day, by means of a letter opener forced four inches into her brain. Dennis has been called in because that very afternoon Repton was due to make an announcement on defence matters which would set not only the country back on its heels but the entire world and the very few of her colleagues who are in the know are frightened that there may have been a leak and deliberate sabotage by forces unknown. A report is given out that the Prime Minister is ill and Skinner has just forty-eight hours to discover who was behind the attack and bring them to justice.

But, what sort of justice? A crime has been committed and it has not been reported officially to the police, which is, in itself, a crime, a crime in this instance which is being supported by the head of the police, the Home Secretary himself. When Bob Skinner insists that he needs support if he is to do the job and goes on to demand the assistance of Neil McIlhenney, his erstwhile colleague and now a Commander in the Met, Neil, ever one of the more cautious members of Skinner’s team, is very uneasy. This, as far as he is concerned, is a job for the police, not the security forces. Nevertheless, he agrees to come on board and I for one cheered because I have missed McIlhenney’s clear thinking since his marriage took him south.

Well, the solution to Repton’s death is eventually discovered but it proves to be almost ancillary to the plotting going on in relation to the defence statement and this is where the story wanders off into realms that ask a lot of the reader’s powers to believe six impossible things before breakfast. I assume Skinner’s dislike of Tory politicians is an echo of his creator’s views, but while I am no apologist for right wing policies myself, I have to say that I found it difficult to give credit to what turn out to be the machinations at the heart of the novel. It is to the author’s benefit that the plot moves as fast as it does. The reader doesn’t have much time to think things though.

In addition events have not treated this book kindly. I would imagine that it was pretty much completed before this summer’s General Election was called. As a consequence the political scene has moved on a pace and certain of the comparisons that are inevitably going to be made between particular characters and real people don’t necessarily any longer ring true. This isn’t a novel to linger over in quiet contemplation but take it at a gallop and you’ll enjoy the ride.

With thanks to Headline who kindly made a copy of this book available.

This was my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it. I will now make it my business to read more. I thought this book contained brilliant crime writing, it was a great book that had plenty of surprises and I really liked the way the author revealed them.

This book had strong characters and I was riveted from the first page. A real page turner.

Many thanks to Quintin Jardine and Netgalley for the copy of this book, I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

This was a nostalgia read for me - can this really be the 28th in the Bob Skinner series? I read perhaps the first 5 or 6 about 20 years ago, liked them very much but then somehow lost sight of them. I can’t judge how the series has progressed so read this as a stand-alone. Having got over a slight disappointment that the action didn’t take place in Edinburgh, I found the detailed descriptions of the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street fascinating if a little claustrophobic. It took me some time to get the politicians fixed in my mind, despite the nods to real-life personalities, but then I was riveted by the manoeuvring and the fast pace of the action. The ending came out of nowhere.

Absolutely fabulous,held my interest from start to finish. Very topical tale with tongue in cheek likenesses to some of today's politicians! Always good to catch up with Bob Skinner and his various proteges. Lot's of twists and turns.

A well constructed novel which gave some surprising insights into the machinations of party politics ! Having read all of the Bob Skinner series this latest novel from Quintin Jardine did not disappoint. Fast paced after the first couple of chapters there were plenty of twists to keep the reader interested. Pleased Bob is back off to Scotland !

Excellent as ever. A real page turner that kept me intrigued right till the end

I haven't read a Bob Skinner book for a number of years. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed them. In fact, I remember getting bored with the details of the private lives of the characters and this book had little of that, so perhaps that is what made the difference. I liked the setting in the Houses of Parliament with its political intrigue and plotting. The story was well paced and satisfyingly complex. The ending was a little bit of a letdown but perhaps realistic, rather than a flight of literary fancy. I also found that the change of narrator from Bob to Neil was a little confusing as it was hard to tell when it changed and I had to re-read the start of the section sometimes. This spoiled the flow a bit. Overall though I really enjoyed the book.

Having read all 20-odd books in this series and thoroughly enjoyed most, I have to admit to a slight disappointment with State Secrets. Since Bob Skinner stopped being a full-time copper, the books have lost a little of their quality, and the premise of this novel, with Bob happening to be in London when the PM is killed and called in to investigate, stretches credulity somewhat.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Headline for an advance copy of State Secrets, the 28th novel to feature ex Chief Constable Bob Skinner.

Bob is in London being sounded out for a peerage when Amanda Dennis, his old friend and now head of MI5, asks him to drop his meeting and help her with a very sensitive investigation. The prime minister has been found dead in her parliamentary office with a letter opener wedged in her skull. Due to the sensitivity of the matter Bob seconded to MI5 and asked to investigate alone. He insists on having Commander Neil MacIlheny of the Met, one of his old team, assist and together they navigate the treacherous waters of Westminster, uncovering some spectacular secrets along the way.

I thoroughly enjoyed State Secrets as I am a big Bob Skinner fan. The plot, while fantastic, is not beyond the realms of possibility and that makes for scary reading. I was not so keen on the setting as I prefer to see them set in Scotland where I have a chance of understanding the geography and meeting other old friends from Bob's team and I'm not fond of politics in my reading matter - there is nothing any author can imagine that can be worse than the self serving reality we see every day.

I don't know enough about politics to know if any of the other characters are thinly painted disguises but it was not difficult to recognise a pre-election Jeremy Corbyn in Merlin Brady, the novel's Labour leader. It is obvious, however, that Mr Jardine had endless fun drawing these characters and the situations they get themselves into as none of them come out of the novel in a particularly good light.

Bob Skinner is rough, tough and very rude - I shudder at some of the things he says and marvel at how he always gets his revenge on those who cross or disrespect him. This comeuppance is sheer brilliance. I wouldn't want to have anything to do with him in real life but he is one of my favourite characters - smart and determined to get the bad guys in his own inimitable way (think bulldozer).

State Secrets is not the best novel in the series but it is still a very good read so I have no hesitation in recommending it.